On Friday, October 19th, 90 female high school students from 27 high schools in the GTA and beyond visited downtown Toronto law firms.
Trailblazers: Meeting Women in Law is an annual girls-focused program offered in partnership with the Law In Action Within Schools (LAWS) program. For grade 11 and 12 students considering a justice sector career, it is an opportunity to learn from women who decided to pursue a career in law.
The afternoon began with lunch in the law firm board room, followed by a tour of the offices and discussions with women lawyers and articling students. Many students had never visited a law firm before and some met a lawyer for the first time. They had lots of questions:
What was law school like? How did you decide what area of law to practice? Is it possible to balance a law career with a family?
Lawyers shared stories about their career paths and discussed various options available to the students. Both lawyers and students found the interactions inspiring.
“I knew I wanted to be a lawyer but this just reaffirmed my dream of being a lawyer!’
Trailblazers participant
“If these young women are any indication, the future of the profession looks very bright indeed!”
Goldblatt Partners Lawyer
Many thanks this year to the law firms that hosted high school students: Blakes, Borden Ladner Gervais (BLG) LLP, Goodmans LLP, Goldblatt Partners LLP, Gowlings WLG and McCarthy Tétrault.